If you suspect your child or someone you know is being trafficked please contact 911 or:

Vancouver Police Department

Sgt. Joe Graaff

360-487-7386

Detective Jason Mills

360-487-7441

Clark County Sheriff--Children’s Justice Center

360-397-6002

Missing and Exploited Children

1-800-843-5678

National Trafficking Resource Center

1-888-373-7888

In 2010, through the collaborative work of a number of community organizations and local government agencies, the issue of sex trafficking of juveniles came to the forefront of our community’s attention. This is an issue that for many years was understood as a problem that existed in our neighboring, and much larger, metropolitan area of Portland, Oregon. Through the work of Shared Hope, the YWCA and other community partners, we came to recognize that this tragic problem is as much a Clark County issue as it is a Portland issue.

Consistent with addressing many community concerns in Clark County, our history of collaboration among community partners has marked our response to minor sex trafficking. As has been stated by Shared Hope, the misidentification of youth involved in sex trafficking is a key issue that needed to be resolved. Through a year-long collaborative community process of education, planning, training and implementation of a pilot program, Clark County Juvenile Court and its community partners have developed a response to minor sex trafficking that focuses on the recognition of these youth as the victims of crime and the bringing of appropriate community resources to bear that can both protect and serve these youth. The focus is on identifying victims as early as possible; starting with screening all youth who enter our detention facility; in addition, our staff has ongoing training aimed at identification and engagement of youth identified as victims. Our commitment is to provide a victim centered approach combined with complex trauma knowledge in helping the victims. Specialized Juvenile court staff continue to be active members of the Clark County Human Trafficking Task Force, which meets monthly to develop collaboration and strategies to combat this abuse of our children.

What is DMST/CSEC?

A commercial sex act that is induced by force, fraud or coercion

OR

A commercial sex act where the person induced to perform such an act is not 18 years old.

What does DMST/CSEC look like?

DMST/CSEC can look like different depending on the situation. Some examples include:

Prostitution

Exotic dancing/stripping

Pornography

What are DMST/CSEC warning signs?

Some warning signs to look for are:

Chronic running away

Within 48 hours of running away, 1 in 3 youth will be approached by someone in the sex industry. This may be done by offering to meet the youth’s basic needs for food and shelter in trade for sex. Offers of drugs or alcohol can be used to draw the youth in.

Presence of an older boyfriend or an older female

The presence of a an older female that takes the youth under her wing could be a deceptive. The average age of first entry into CSEC/DMST is 12 to 14 years old.

Tattoos

Pimps often “brand” the victim.

Signs of violence or reoccurring STD’s

Unexplained money, hotel room keys, Viagra in their purse

Traveling from city to city with non-family

DMST/CSEC facts to remember...

Children from all types of homes and families have been victims.

Children that are in foster care or who have been abused are at higher risk.

The traffickers are skilled manipulators, preying on their victims by way of threats and violence and/or false promises of a better life.